Believe it or not my dad taught me shoot on his brownbess musket. 20 years later and many guns later the old Bess is still my go to gun for a fun day on the range. Thank you mike, loving this series!

I agree, the Pedersoli Brown Bess is loads of fun. I would also recommend their Hapers Ferry Model 1816 musket as well.

That thing shoots like a boss Mike. Thanks for sharing.

I think this is the second video of yours I’ve seen where you polished the bore. That’s a lot of work, but worth it. Thanks for the instructional video.

An hour of burnishing? Oof, that sounds tiring but the results speak for themselves.

So knowledgeable and so generous! Thank you Mike for sharing your treasure trove of knowledge.

Been shooting muzzle loaders for 45 years and I'm still learning new stuff. Your an excellent resource and a great teacher.

Wow! Impressive accuracy from a smooth bore!

Mike, Thank you for the information you presented on polishing and burnishing the bore. I use a .715 round ball with lubed paper in my Bess and can keep 4 of 5 hits within a 7in circle at 25yds using 120grs of 2f powder. I am definitely going to follow your information on polishing the bore and go to a .690 round ball. Keep up with your great videos!!! They are the highlight of my week! Steve

Great tutorial. Can’t wait for your practical accuracy test.

Yes modern arms are better in every way but that doesn’t take away from what a front stuffer can do! Same power you just use more powder and accurate as can be! The only drawback is you gotta load it every single round but thats just what they had back then, Im grateful for them because they made what guns are today!! Much respect!

Well after seeing this video I polished the note of my Fowler …. I too found it a little rough toward the muzzle now it’s shined and super smooth. Thanks Mike

Thanks Mike, Another fun day at the Dualist Den

A great tutorial on how to improve the barrel of a smoothbore musket. I learned a lot and have 2 muskets that may benefit from a polish. I've watched several of your videos and enjoy all of them, especially the black powder ones.

Excellent presentation. I agree with your opinions on tactics and aiming. I shot an exact replica of the Lewis and Clark air rifle. It hit a small target at 50 yards.

I'm sure they wont be happy with us if we show up to do the woods walk with ol' bess looks to pulverize whatever that ball hits. Thank you for all of the material you've put together on this particular longarm it's been very helpful.

Glad you mentioned this during your talk yesterday at Fort Loudoun. I missed it when you originally posted it. I will need to try it

Thanks for taking the time to explain the polishing & burnishing processes.

Great video, i have a Hawken 50 cal that gave me the same problem. i could get off 3 rounds then it would be hard to load. I started using a thinner and well lubed patch on the ball, which resulted in a better seal and better accuracy.

fixed, and you hit that small target, great job all around.

Thanks for the great video. We are never too old to learn new tricks. 'Old and Wise has the Eyes.'....Tim

Awesome video Mike! Really enjoying these brown bess videos I really have a soft spot for these 1700s type firearms.

THANK YOU. MIKE!!!

Thank you Mike for answering my question on the Griswald & Gunnison.

Good job Mike!

Great info . I have done similar to a used Hawken I got but I used Tooth paste and also some of my wife’s emulsifying cream , very minimal grit .

Great video Mike, thanks!

Is it possible for a video to make you want a flintlock? YES YES I want a Brown Bess!! Love your videos sir I’ll be back for sure

Thank you for your videos! Your awesome knowledge taught me so much about these guns and now I have several including an original 1771 brown bess!

Another great video Mike. Thanks. I love my Pedersoli Brown Bess also.

Another great video Mike. I enjoy all your videos, but have really gotten a lot out of your recent smoothbore episodes. They have helped me get my new 28 gauge fowler ready for deer season. I have been pleasantly surprised by my round ball accuracy and have put to use many of your tips and suggestions. After watching this I am going to polish and burnish the bore as well. Thank you!

Great video! I’ve wanted a smoothbore trade musket or officer’s fusil for a while now, and you may have just pushed me over the edge.

Great video Mike, I love the Bess.

When I was going thru the Mountain Phase of Ranger Training at Camp Merrill, the locals in Dahlonega, who were NOT very fond of what they called Federal Troops, but somehow took a shine to me; probably because I was a gun nut and a black powder enthusiast. (They also hadn't seen many Marines at that Army School...) I saw many Winchester 94's and '95 carbines a whole lot of military surplus (I do so Love Krag Carbines!!!) One acquaintance was a bearded gentleman who displayed his Brown Bess smooth bore which did my heart good!!! I'm sure this man was up against Winchester Model 70's Remington Model 700's and Ruger M77's but I was told he got his deer every year, as did his Father, and his Father, and his Father, and his Father etc. That was 1975, I don't believe they had a Black Powder Season yet but in those heavy woods, like it or not, they had the final word, no they were the final word. (They called paper targets Shermans.) I hope when the Good Lord calls me home I get to see them again.

Mike! Thank you so much, I know I was not supposed to do this to an original Brown Bess but I did this and by God it is very accurate!

It would have been interesting to have seen some before and after photos of the inside of the barrel, to see how much the barrel changed.

Good job

I've shot a short naval brown bess accurately at up to 50 yards. It's not a tack driver but at 50 yards it will consistently hit a 1 foot by 1 foot solid steel plate from 50 yards away

Impressive results

Nice shots and you did an awesome job on the bore. I'm impressed.

You put so much work into Italian guns to improve them. For the benefit of the thousands of black powder enthusiast who buy them. I would like to see what you could do with an Inda made musket. There are several companies that import them. They are not that expensive which is why people buy them. Thanks for all you do. John Davis Jax Fl

as always, a good video mike,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Great Video!!

Very Enjoyable. Thank you Mike . Love to watch you shoot. And swordplay. All the things im intrested in. Have a Great Week. Joe.

Hmmm, I have that same issue with my 1853 British Enfield . I think I’ll get out the steel wool and the scrubber pad to do the same thing! Never thought of doing that before

That bess is thunderous

Nice shooting!

Odd, Pedersoli is very proud of their barrel making.

Good Video

Good shooting Mike. Thanks

Pedersoli and Uberti make some nice guns but they don't seem to take enough time to do things like properly polishing the bore as in your case. Great video!

Always enjoy your videos

A friend of mine has a Fusil de Tulle custom built I forget the gun smith who did it for him but it is a very accurate musket with a patched ball. It has the turtle front sight like most the Tulle musket but Jerry has a rear sight on it also. My 1816 war fairly accurate (pederosoli) and so is my Armi Sport 1842. I sold the 1816 sorry I did but I wanted an 1876 Winchester on 45-60 but I swapped it for an 1860 Henry by Uberti, You helped my figure out how to cut down 45-70 brass to make 45-60. that worked out great

I miss “the bad guys view.”

Well shoot ! off to Home Depot to by a dowel! Great video great tip

Okay now I'm on a mission to own a brown bes great video.

Eagerly awaiting the video where you see how far the Bess can shoot accurately

Excellent tutorial Mike, great info thanks...

I am waiting right now for Dixie to send me my Pedersoli Brown Bess and I am looking forward to it for sure.

I would have used a cloth mop (like the steel wool one) and a generous helping of Solvol Autosol (chrome polish) to finish up with.

I scrubbed my Lyman GPR 54 caliber with the 3m pad before re I ever shot it. It is as slick as can be and loads as baby as you can stand.

Just found out what to do to my French 20 gauge fusil!

Very cool Mike.

Great shooting!!

Great fun! Thanks.

Nice work great Gun top shooting Cheers Mike

Hey Mike, I just saw your article in Muzzleloader magazine. Great one! Thanks for the lesson on bore polishing as well. Happy trails. (Trump 2020!)

I tear my paper cartridges with my fingers. Holding cartridge and barrel in one hand tear with other. I know historically mouth tearing is correct, but I don't need the paper taste. After I watched hour video using the scouring pads I used scouring pads on my rifle and it helped loading also.

Thank you, Mike, for presenting the problem of bore fouling even when shooting the historically correct ball. And, may I suggest, the period solution is readily apparent and simply available. The .69" ball was loaded by the infantry in a paper cartridge. You are apparently not doing that. In my experience, a critical component IS the paper cartridge which scourers the bore on loading, sending residue to the breech each time, and filling much of the "wind-age" gap between ball & bore upon ignition of the propellant powder. With the historically correct 3/32" vent (Pedersoli guns have too small a vent!) and paper cartridges holding .69" balls, I've had NO ignition failures nor tight bores at the shooting range nor difficulty burning through all 24 cartridges in my cartridge box. Accuracy improved, too, with the paper cartridge acting, perhaps, somewhat as a sabot.

Great video! I would love to see what that bore looks like after all that work.

I'm impressed. Enough said.

This was a great video!! 👍👍👍

I tried the 3M method on my new GPR fainter. Haven't shot it yet, but you can tell the bore gets smoother from less resistance when swabbing it.

Thanks for all your videos. Fun and great information.

Imagine taking that deer hunting.

Looks great! You always get the best out of your guns while being informative and engaging. The average soldier didn't have a musket as well polished as yours is now. The Bess and Charleville muskets were chosen for rate of fire(3 to 4 per minute) not so much accuracy. I have read accounts of cartridges made with smaller ball to account for many more shots before barrel fouling made loading the musket problematic. The manual of arms I have seen(Von Steuben's Blue book page 17), had the soldier prime the pan before charging the barrel. So getting a consistent charge on the barrel was unlikely. By the same token, some table hunters or market hunters may have gone to more pains to squeeze accuracy out of their muskets. If they couldn't get enough accuracy, they would load "Buck n Ball" to wound an animal sufficiently to assure harvesting.

Awesome, welldone what fun.👍

I bought one of Pedersoli's Brown Bess kits and they drilled out the ramrod pipe pin holes all crooked so there wasn't but a 6th of an inch of wood holding them on. I'd be afraid to draw or replace the ramrod with any kind of urgency in fear of cracking the stock. The touch hole was also positioned at the base of the pan just like yours.

I have one, going from cartridge guns to this, the delay in videos doesn't seem like a whole lot, but trust me it takes a lot of practice because when you're the one shooting the delay feels like forever.

Nice one

Italians have a long, 3 hour lunch" at about 1 pm. You may have gotten your Brown Bess from the afternoon shift. I'm thinking of getting the Brown Bess To ndians Trade musket. I like the idea of having the option of shot or ball.

I'd really like to see you test fire buck and ball load for the brown bess.

Thanks

bonjour de france vos vidéos sont très bien je me suis abonné. continuez

"Rifling? We don't need no stinking rifling!"

At the beginning I thought you were going to use valve grinding grease on a patch like you would if you were lapping a rifle barrel. Looks like you did it right though.

Hi Mike! Great job with your Bess! I would love for you to demo/explain your sight picture/hold for this weapon...since it has no rear sight. I'm not as consistent when live shooting and aiming with my Brown Bess. Some of it is a little flinching I'm sure, but it is also getting an established sight picture/hold with only the front bayonet lug to guide me. You seem to be putting them right in there, so how are you aiming to compensate for no rear sight? Thanks much!!

These easily-fixed bore issues seem to be a common theme for pedersoli guns. Shame because from what I can tell they’re one of the better companies that manufacture black powder guns on the large scale.

Great, just great: now I gotta go get one for myself. Darn.

I was checking out those flex hones for a slightly pitted Damascus shotgun I want to shoot black powder shells from, but they are ungodly expensive for a home hobbyist working on a cheap old gun. I like your technique and am going this route, thanks! I wonder if following up the burnishing with degreasing and some cold bluing in the bore might further prevent corrosive action, especially with home brew primers I'm using?

after watching your vids on the Bess I searched youtube for more and found one Hickok45 did a while back and in a closeup it looks like his Bess has a low touch hole as well. Also its looked like his was an India pattern Bess, I think thats what the shorter one is called.

Deepen the pan for a low vent hole. Would you deepen it by how much higher the vent should have been? 16th” maybe?

Cool👍

I wonder if that process done to a lesser extent would help a rifled piece. I had a few .50 cal long rifles some you could shoot all day long without cleaning and some you would have to swab it out after two shots because of how hard it was to load.

Time to attemp making this musket.....

Is that dark colored metal finishing pad more or less aggressive than the red 3m metal finishing pad? Thanks for all you do.

Cool!!!!

@duelist1954 I got a similar problem with my Investarm .54 smoothbore. You think it would be worth even trying with a chrome lined bore?

Have you ever tried saturating a patch with lapping compound and grease/oil? It worked well on my Ruger Flat Top's forcing cone... though using lead bullets and no patch.

What will be the effective range of this brown bess musket???🤔🤔🤔 I like this gun.